The End of Everything Box Set, Vol. 1 [Books 1-3]

by Artinian, Christopher

  “We start by loosening up. We need to do some stretches and slowly ease into it, otherwise we might end up pulling something and then we’re screwed.”

  “Okay, I’ll follow you,” Robyn said.

  “Cool.”

  Wren performed a variety of warm-up exercises and Robyn followed her every move. When their bodies were sufficiently limber, they picked up their javelins, and Wren took Robyn through the thrust and advance sequence she had done the previous day. When her sister’s moves looked confident, she had them performing the same moves single handed, right first, left second. They spent time targeting the overalls. Top left pocket. Right knee. Top right pocket. Left hip. They would never use any of these moves on one of the reanimated, but it was all about control and aim. That was the whole purpose behind the training. Everything was about becoming familiar with the weapon; familiar with the feel and the weight of it.

  At just after eight a.m. they broke for breakfast. “Thanks, Wren,” Robyn said, as they walked back into the house.

  “That’s okay. I’m happy to help.”

  “I feel better after that.”

  “We’ll have another go later. It’s true what they say, practice makes perfect.”

  “Cereal for breakfast?” Robyn asked, opening one of the cupboards.

  “Yeah, sure,” Wren replied.

  “Hey, where’s all the stuff gone? We had loads more than this”

  “I took a few bits back to Brian’s place; I took a few more and stashed them.”

  “How come?”

  “If what you said last night is true, then we’ll be getting a visit, and if they think we’ve got loads of supplies, it will cause us all sorts of problems. It’s attention we can do without,” Wren said.

  “You think of everything, don’t you?”

  “There’s another thing, Bobbi.”

  “What?”

  “If things do go bad here. For whatever reason, I’ve put a bug-out bag underneath the tarpaulin in the shed. We grab it, we hop over the back fence, and we go back to plan A.”

  “What the hell’s a bug-out bag?”

  “It’s like an emergency kit with enough stuff in to last us about seventy-two hours. It’s got food, medical supplies, equipment and so on.”

  “That doesn’t really fill me with confidence.”

  “Hey, it’s just in case. It’s better to have one and not need it than not have one and need it.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  They’d just sat down at the table with their cereal when a knock came at the door. They shot glances towards each other. It was Robyn who got up to answer. She opened it to see Donnie, Carl, and Jason Barker, Donnie’s right-hand man.

  “Morning sunshine,” Donnie said as he stepped in without invitation. “Morning, Wren, your back feeling better?”

  Wren glared at him for a moment while she chewed on a mouthful of cereal. She swallowed it as she watched the other two men walk in behind him. “A bit,” she said.

  “Robyn probably told you, we’re going to set up a communal pantry to make sure nobody goes hungry. So, we’re going house to house, checking that people have got enough to last them for a few days, and taking any excess for a food bank.” He looked over the kitchen counter. “I see you’re pretty well sorted for water for a while anyway,” he said, with a smile. “You don’t mind if we look around, do you?”

  The three men did not wait for an invitation and began opening cupboards straight away. “Erm, we don’t have much,” Robyn said as she stepped out of the way to let them by.

  “We’ll see, shall we? A couple of young girls like yourselves won’t need much compared to some of the families on the street. We’ve got to make sure everybody is looked after.”

  Carl winked at Robyn as he passed by her, but she just looked away, feeling violated by the intrusion. The men went through the cupboards inspecting everything. Donnie Donovan pulled out a bag from his jacket pocket and started piling tins into it. “There’s a lot here for two young girls,” he said, filling the bag in no time, and getting out another.

  “That’s our stuff,” Wren said, standing up from the table.

  “There’s no yours and mine anymore. We’re all in this together now. We’re setting up a food store at our house, and things are going to be rationed. You’ve got enough here to get you to the end of the week. Come to ours on Monday and we’ll dish out enough for another week.”

  “If food’s in such short supply, why did you waste it on a barbecue last night? All of a sudden we’ve got a food shortage, but you can waste pounds of meat having a party. How does that work?”

  Donnie was about to answer when Carl stepped out of the kitchen area, past Robyn and walked straight up to Wren. Firstly, my dad doesn’t need to answer to you. It was him who had the idea to blockade the street yesterday. He’s a hero. You should be thanking him. Second, we were blowin’ off a little steam after yesterday. That was hard work, not that you’d know, cos you were nowhere to be seen. And third, the meat was going to go off. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but all the fridges and freezers have stopped working around here.”

  “It’s alright, son,” Donnie said, putting his hand on Carl’s shoulder. “Wren just needs to get used to how things are now.”

  Wren did not break her stare with Carl as he stood not a foot away from her, glaring down angrily. “Why didn’t you cure the meat?”

  “Cure it? There was nothing wrong with it. Why would it need curing?”

  Wren raised an eyebrow and a small smirk curled up the corner of her face.

  “What do you know about curing meat?” Donnie asked, gently pushing his son to one side.

  “Only what I’ve read.”

  “So, you’re a reader? We’ve got a smart one here, Jay,” he said calling back to his pal who was closing the last of the kitchen cupboard doors. Donnie opened the bag and gave Wren a tin of rice pudding. There you go, girly. A bit of extra brain food for you. You keep reading your books, Wren. Always useful to have an educated person around,” he said with a sarcastic smile. “We’re coming up with a rota for guarding the barricade, and everybody will be taking a turn. We’ll let you know soon enough when it’s your shift. C’mon lads,” he said, heading back out. Jason followed him, but before Carl left, he turned to look at Robyn.

  “If you fancy coming round tonight, we’re having leftovers from the barbie,” he said.

  “I’ll check my calendar.”

  “Suit yourself,” Carl replied. “I’ll save you a nice piece of rump just in case.” With that, he left, closing the door behind him.

  The girls stood looking at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing. “I’ll save you a nice piece of rump?” Wren said, bending over and holding her stomach. “Oh my god! What a complete prick. How could you have liked someone like that?”

  “He was okay until he opened his big mouth.” They continued laughing for a short time before Robyn went to look in the kitchen cupboards. “Shit, they’ve really ripped us off.”

  “We knew this was coming. I didn’t leave anything in the cupboards I wasn’t prepared to lose. We’ve still got enough to last us a few weeks; don’t worry.”

  “We can’t live on dry cereal. How are we going to cook stuff?”

  “I was thinking about that.” Wren walked into the kitchen and opened the oven door, pulling out one of the shelves. “Come with me,” she said, and the two of them walked into the garden. Wren went behind the shed and pulled out the galvanised steel incinerator which her dad used for burning garden rubbish. She took off the lid and placed the oven shelf over the top of it. “Hey presto…we’ve got a hob again.”

  “Will that work?”

  “Course it’ll work. I’ll make us something on it tonight...unless you want to go the barbie.”

  “Erm...no.”

  “Y’know things are going to get bad here. I mean very bad.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “It’s been one day and al
ready they’ve resorted to a feudal rule. We’ve just been robbed and we’re meant to be grateful that they’re looking out for us. What comes next?”

  “What does come next?”

  “They’re already doing whatever they want. They’re going to continue that and take bigger and bigger liberties. What if they decide they prefer this house to their own? Or what if Carl decides he doesn’t need to ask you for anything, and just takes it?” Her words hung in the air, and for the first time, Robyn grasped the true severity of what was going on.

  “So what do we do?”

  “We go back to the original plan.”

  “Grandad’s place?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m scared though, Wren. What happened yesterday, it showed me just how much I’m not cut out for this stuff.”

  “You think anybody’s cut out for this? Look at the positives. We went out there, and we got back here in one piece. Next time, we’ll know what to expect. We’ll take as few risks as we can get away with. All I know is the longer we stay here, the worse it’s going to get.”

  “You’re right. I know you’re right.” She looked at Wren for a second. “Can we…”

  “Can we what?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “No, what is it?”

  “Can we go back into the garden and do a bit more training?”

  Wren smiled. “Course we can.”

  chapter 10

  The noise of the second night of partying across at the King’s Castle was nowhere near as loud as the night before, but it was enough to drown out the growls of the creatures. Wren and Robyn were in their back garden. They had their newly built incinerator hob in full flame. An open tin of beans was slowly heating in one corner, while a pan of boiling water bubbled in the other. In the centre, a large frying pan was set and four pork sausages were sizzling away, making the girls’ mouths water.

  Wren reached for the water and brought it off the heat, placing it carefully down on the garden bench.

  “Can you keep an eye on the sausages?”

  “Course I can,” Robyn replied, turning them over with a long barbecue fork.

  Wren re-read the instructions on the side of the instant mashed potato packet and poured it over the water, slowly stirring until the mixture began to look like something resembling mashed potatoes. She sprinkled in a little salt before spooning two equal measures onto waiting plates. She then put on a pair of oven gloves, grabbed the tin of beans, which was now beginning to bubble, poured that onto the plates before returning, taking the frying pan off the heat, and placing two perfectly browned sausages on each plate.

  “Bon appetite,” she said, handing her sister one of the plates.

  “I’m famished! This looks great.”

  “Well, great might be a stretch, but at least we can have hot food,” she said, raising her glass of orange cordial and clinking it with Robyn’s in celebration.

  A roar of laughter rose into the air from across the road, and the looks of happiness on both the girls’ faces disappeared momentarily.

  “We’re going to have to go sooner, rather than later, aren’t we?” Robyn said.

  “Did you look towards the city from your bedroom window today?”

  “No. Why?”

  “There was lots of smoke, Bobbi. The city’s burning and nobody’s coming to put it out.” The two of them continued eating in silence for a while before Wren spoke again. “If we didn’t have them to think about,” she said, gesturing in the direction of the party, “I’d say we could stay here a while; train, prepare, get our heads in the right place for this. But they’re the X factor. They’re unpredictable. Things might die down and it might be livable, or it could get worse in a heartbeat.”

  Almost on cue, there was another raucous eruption from across the road.

  “I suppose this is what they mean about being stuck between a rock and a hard place,” she said, taking another mouthful of mash and beans.

  “We just have to be sensible. When the risk of staying here is greater than the risk of heading out, that’s when we go.”

  “That’s easy enough to say, but how will we know?”

  “Trust me, we’ll know.”

  Suddenly both of them looked towards the back garden gate as they heard footsteps, followed by somebody trying the handle of the front door. There were more footsteps and some giggling before they heard the gate lever, squeaking out of its rest.

  “So, this is where you are,” Carl said, holding a bottle in one hand while the other one was wrapped around his brother’s shoulder. “This is my brother, he’s just a couple of years younger than you,” he said, nodding towards Wren. “I thought you both might like to come over and join the fun.”

  The younger brother also had a bottle in his hand. “No,” Wren smiled politely, “we’re going to bed after supper.”

  “What, together? We’re into that,” laughed Carl, and his brother joined in.

  “Very funny. Do you have a filter in your brain, or do you just immediately say whatever stupid thing it is that comes into your head?” Wren asked.

  Carl’s demeanour changed in an instant. He let go of his brother and drunkenly swaggered across towards Wren.

  “What did you fuckin’ say to me?” he said, grabbing hold of her by the hair, and pulling her head back, causing Wren’s plate to fall from her knee and onto the grass.

  She grabbed hold of his wrist. “Let go of me, now!”

  He pulled her hair back even harder, and she let out a whimper. “Y’see Calum? This is how you need to treat a girl if she won’t do what you want her to,” he said beginning to laugh.

  Wren gritted her teeth, “I said, let go of me.”

  “Let go of her,” demanded Robyn.

  Carl started laughing even louder, and his brother, a little nervous, a little excited, started mimicking Carl’s laughter.

  “Come here Calum, I’ll show you how it’s done,” he said, taking another drink from his bottle.

  The younger boy started heading across, but then Wren unleashed a powerful blow with her right fist, and a volcanic spew of blood burst into the air. In the deteriorating light, it looked much darker, but it glistened as it reflected the flames that still flickered from the incinerator.

  Calum stopped dead in his tracks, the grin replaced by an open mouthed look of horror as his older brother let go of Wren’s hair and staggered backwards, dropping his bottle and bringing his hand up to his nose at the same time.

  Carl looked at his hand as the treacle-like fluid dripped from it onto the lawn. He tried to inhale through his bloody nose, but instead, a spluttering rasp came from the back of his throat. He did not say a word, but suddenly, the ill-intentioned bravado was gone, and it was replaced with a look of pure hatred, as he advanced on Wren.

  Carl’s fist balled tight as he approached her, but Wren stood her ground. He raised it ready to strike, but Wren unleashed an almighty kick, making direct contact with Carl’s testicles. He collapsed faster than a broken deckchair, cupping his hands over his beloved jewels. Tears glistened in his eyes as the flames flickered and for several seconds, he remained immobile, as did his brother, who was frozen in shock.

  Everything happened so quickly, and Robyn just watched on, partly in horror, partly in complete awe.

  “I’m going to go get my dad,” Calum said, and began to run towards the gate, but Robyn quickly blocked his way.

  While his back was turned, Wren grabbed her glass of orange cordial, pulled one of Carl’s hands away from his groin and threw the contents of the glass onto his jeans before jumping back again and throwing the glass into one of the bushes. As Calum realised he was not going anywhere, he turned back around in the hope his brother had rallied himself.

  “Oh my god, he’s pissed himself!” Wren said, pointing towards the wet patch on Carl’s groin. “Eugh! Gross!”

  “That is disgusting. I think I’m gonna hurl,” Robyn said, putting her hand up to her mouth.

&
nbsp; Calum looked like he was going to start crying. “Get your brother out of here, now. If I see either of you again, the next time you see your balls, they’ll be in a jar.”

  “You…bitch...I’ll...get...you for this,” Carl spluttered as his brother tried to help him up. He struggled to his feet and Wren unleashed another fast kick, making him let out an audible cry before he crumpled once again.

  “Stop it!” Calum pleaded.

  “You don’t hear too well, Carl. Maybe your nads have got stuck up there in your auditory canal. I told you, I see either of you again, you’re going to regret it. Now get out. The pair of you,” she said heading across to open the gate.

  It was another minute before Carl struggled to his feet again, and his brother helped him out, down the driveway, and across the road. Neither of them said a word. Neither of them looked back in the girls’ direction.

  Wren watched them as they disappeared from view before shutting the gate and blocking the outside world once again. The two sisters looked at each other and then burst out laughing.

  “That was hilarious,” Robyn said. “You’re my heroine.”

  “Come here Calum…I’ll show you how it’s done,” Wren said, impersonating Carl’s tone. Both girls laughed again.

  “I don’t think we’ll be seeing them in a hurry.”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure; we’d best keep our guard up.”

  “Seriously? You think he’d come back round after that?”

  “Not tonight. He’ll be dipping into the freezer hoping he can find a pack of peas that are still half frozen to put on his balls. But he’s not the forgiving kind. You can see it in his eyes. His dad’s the same. I’ve questioned his masculinity, his strength. He’s lost face in front of his little brother.”

  “Oh shit!”

  “But like I say, Robyn, we keep our guard up.”

  Robyn looked at her for a while as the meaning of what she said sunk in. “Okay. I’ll just make sure I’m always wearing my boots.” The two sisters smiled at each other. “Come on,” Robyn said, sitting back down on the bench and patting the space beside her. I’ve got more than enough on my plate for the two of us.”

  Wren sat down beside her, picked up her fork from the grass and gave it a thorough wipe before the two of them tucked in to the plate of food. They did not speak but just looked thoughtfully into the fire as they ate. When they had finished, they sat back as the flames from the incinerator gradually began to diminish.